1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data entry and retrieval and, more particularly, to a method and system for viewing annotations, created for data objects in a data source using a first application, in a second application capable of accessing the data source.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are well known methods for capturing and storing explicit knowledge as data, for example, in relational databases, documents, flat files, and various proprietary formats in binary files. Often, such data is analyzed by various parties (e.g., experts, technicians, managers, etc.), resulting in rich interpretive information commonly referred to as tacit knowledge. Such tacit knowledge, however, is often only temporarily captured, for example, as cryptic notes in a lab notebook, discussions/conversations, presentations, instant messaging exchanges, e-mails and the like. Because this tacit knowledge is not typically captured in the environment in which the related data is viewed and analyzed, it is often lost.
One approach to capture tacit knowledge more permanently is to create annotations containing descriptive information about data objects. Virtually any identifiable type of data appearing in a data source may be annotated as a data object, including, a matrix of data (e.g., a spreadsheet or database table), a text document, or an image. Further, sub-portions of objects (sub-objects) may be annotated, such as an individual cell, row or column in a database table or a section, paragraph or word in a text document. Typically, an indexing scheme is used to create an index that maps each annotation to the annotated data object or sub-object. The index should provide enough specificity to allow the indexing scheme to locate the annotated data object (or sub-object). Further, the indexing scheme should work both ways to be effective: that is, given an index, the scheme will locate a corresponding data object, and given an object, the scheme will calculate the index values for use in classification, comparison and searching (e.g., to search for annotations for a given data object).
An annotation system stores descriptive information, in the form of annotations, about data objects, without modifying the data objects directly. An annotation store, typically implemented using a database, stores the annotations along with the index values used to map each annotation to a data object, or the position within a data object.
Problems may arise when a group of collaborators interacting with an annotation system use a variety of different type applications to review and access the same data sources. Some applications, for example, may be configured only to view, and not create or modify a particular data source. Such an application may reference portions of a data source using a start byte and an offset, while the application used to generate the data source may refer to section, paragraph, line, word, etc. Thus, one application accessing a data source may not be able to properly identify a data object corresponding to an annotation due to different indexing methods used by different applications to reference data objects within the same data source. Accordingly, the usefulness of the annotation, and the tacit knowledge it captures, may be limited by the application environment in which the annotation is created.
Thus, there is a need for methods and systems for sharing annotations created for portions of a data source when different users may view the data source using variety of different applications. Preferably, the methods and systems will allow users to view annotations created for data objects within one data source, regardless of the application used to view the data source.